Sunday, November 24, 2013

Products aren't revolutionary, get it straight!

The term "revolutionary" is overused. Changing your form of government from a
monarchy to a representative Democracy is revolutionary. Browsing the Internet from your tablet
instead of your PC is not.

Revolutions are about upheaval not convenience. Changing your method doesn't change the
context. The core of the word "revolution"
is "revolt." "Evolution"
is just another form of "evolve."

Simply put, revolution and evolution are not interchangeable
terms regardless of anything you see in a Microsoft or Apple advertisement. When you buy an IPAD you're not revolting against
anything, not even Microsoft.

There's nothing wrong with evolving, it's the reason we
aren't still beating our clothes on rocks or retiring to a little wooden shack
with a moon carved in the door when nature calls.

Yet the word "revolutionary" gets thrown around
quite a bit. Maybe that's because the
so-called developed world has long since moved on from debates over social
justice to be replaced by the most popular color of Iphone.

Perhaps the misuse of the term stems from our fascination
with technological doo-dads. They need
do nothing more than change their shape or offer a bigger screen to suddenly
find themselves on par with a certain conflict in 1776.

It's more than a question of semantics, it's a potentially
dangerous devaluing of the term. If a regime
change is on par with the latest "product" we become desensitized to
both. That's fine for the crap found on
late night infomercials but not for events that potentially affect the human
condition.

I'm probably screaming into the wind but it seems obvious
that the more we muddy the meaning of what we say the less value our words
have.

Think about that the next time you're browsing the wares at
your local best buy or Amazon.com.